We All Love Our Horses

Howdy Friends!
We all love our horses. We all love to ride them, be with them, play, work and just be a horse person. Everything we do with, for, and too our horses effects them, mentally and physically. Every time we lead, work and ride our horses we impact their lives, being and bodies. What we do, and how we do it effects our horses’ posture – every time. In almost everything we do riding, effects the horse’s posture in a manner contrary to positive, healthy body carriage.
 

Here I'm demonstrating the "Rock Back" exercise. Standing softly in front of your horse, ask for her to shift her weight back to her hind end (Not a step back). This exercise will be easier after the horse has mastered the other exercises that soften the body and improve posture. This exercise is very important.

Repetitive training, competing, showing, and even trail riding all impact posture, forcing most horses onto their forehand, if we don’t employ techniques to offset the impact. Horses operating on their forehand begin a downward spiral of health. The front end stiffens, flexibility erodes, the top-line begins to drop, and the hind-end degenerates into disengagement. Joints become painful, tendons stretch, and even organ function is hindered. Of course all this damage takes time, at least most of it, but some damage begins very early and is often unnoticed, or misdiagnosed. It is why horses slow down, balk, and even display temperament changes.
 
My strongest passion as a horse advocate is helping equine enthusiasts learn the truth about horse posture, and simple things they can do to ensure their horse enjoys proper, healthy posture, body carriage, and self awareness. My passion is why I travel to do clinics and teach the simple to learn exercises that guarantee horses can maintain proper, healthy posture throughout their lives.
 
Horses can indeed enjoy absolutely correct and healthful posture lifelong, and every horse owner, caregiver and enthusiast can be certain they are helping their horse, just by learning a few simple exercises and techniques that promote it.
 
My “Equine Posture Clinics” will provide every horse enthusiast the tools they need to forever help their horses maintain that healthful posture. At my clinics you’ll master a series of easy to learn exercises for the horse that will not only promote, restore and maintain healthy posture, but will cause your horse to excel in any discipline you love.


To learn how you can help bring my Equine Posture Clinic to your area, email me dutchhenry@hughes.net and please put “clinic” in the subject. Let’s do it for the horses!


Gitty Up, Dutch Henry.

Flexibility is not in the neck-it is in the back, the spine

Howdy Friends!

Flexibility is not in the neck..it is in the back, the spine … And you can’t correct that by over bending the horse right or left – You need to get the horse to lift the back, separate the vertebrae then they’ll have the suppleness to turn side to side. Horses not able to engage their hind end are forced to shift the load to the front end not designed to handle the load, hence we see the numbers of suspensory ligament and flexory tendon damage in the front end. These are 2 connected, common but reversible, conditions. It takes time and proper exercises to lift the back, engage the abdomen and empower the hind end. Simply doing the famous “belly lift,” tickling the belly causing the horse to jerk its back up, does little to create proper, healthy posture. It takes time to retrain the muscles. The belly lift is indeed an important part of the therapy to rehab a sinking topline, along with a series of other easy to learn exercises.... In this pic I demonstrate “piano wire release.” Tight hind ends are the result of improper posture and will prevent the front end from softening... Put your fingers where you see mine, apply enough pressure to find the tendon running up from hock to top of muscle – rub side to side over the “piano wire” all the way up. You will see some release the first time. This is one exercise to fixing posture and flexibility. All are in my clinics. You should learn them, for your horse’s sake. Contact me to set up clinic.

~ Gitty up, Dutch.